It is mainly smiles at this protest in
Chicha in West Sussex today, but it is
one of several locations around the
country where concerns are being raised
about the use of hotels to house asylum
seekers. There are migrant hotels around
the nation, including here in Orington,
where residents had mixed views about
living beside one.
>> Well, they've got to go somewhere,
aren't they? I don't see a problem with
that at all.
>> There's plenty of places they can put
them. What What's wrong with that? What
was wrong with that ferry out of the
other side of port?
>> Today's protests follow the high court
ruling where Eping Forest District
Council successfully secured a temporary
injunction to block asylum seekers from
staying at the Bell Hotel. But the
owners, Sani Hotels, say they will now
appeal. And the government is also
seeking the right to intervene and be
included in the case. If granted, they
too are expected to appeal. We've made a
commitment that we will close all of the
asylum hotels by the end of this
parliament, but we need to do that in a
managed and ordered way, and that's why
we'll appeal this decision.
>> The Home Office says it still plans to
end the use of hotels altogether by
2029, but insists the change must happen
in an orderly way. Today, it confirmed
one side the park hotel in Dis Norfolk
will not be used to house asylum seekers
after protest from locals.
But the Eping judgment has changed the
landscape of this entire issue. Analysis
by ITV News shows there are 30 councils
looking at the implications of it and
they could be open to legal action. This
lawyer says it will ultimately depend on
each situation.
>> What's particularly unique in this case
is that the local authority had made it
clear to the hotel that that they were
not using it as a hotel and that they
needed to make an application to change
their use. So in terms of whether this
is going to happen in other cases, it
depends on whether those local
authorities have been pursuing the
hotels already.
>> The tries say it's wrong the government
wants to appeal. They say it's time to
listen to the message that's being sent
by the public and the courts. For now,
it will be a case of waiting for the
legal back and forth, but until then on
the ground, it remains tense. Chih Khan,
ITV News.
>> Well, Olivia Guthrie is at that protest
in Chich. Olivia, what's happening there
now?
>> Well, Lretzia, that decision by the
government to appeal that Tuesday high
court decision about removing asylum
seekers from the Bell Hotel in Eping has
certainly served to further insense the
anti-immigration protesters here in
Chicha. Now, there is a small group of
counterprotesters across the road just
out of shop, but they are vastly
outnumbered. Now earlier I spoke to some
of the asylum seekers who are resident
here at the Park Hotel which includes
families with small children. One woman
from Pakistan told me that everyone
inside has a genuine asylum claim. But
the anti-immigration protesters here say
they are worried about community safety
and they say they want housing for
British people. And there have certainly
been an awful lot of cars beeping their
horns in approval of that sentiment. as
they pass. More protests are planned
across the UK over the weekend.